UK

15th November 2007

1:31 PM — Since winning Sheffield Hallam in the 2005 general election, Nick Clegg has made a major impression on Liberal Democrats in Parliament and across the country.Tipped as a future leader before he even entered Westminster, in the wake of Sir Menzies Campbell's resignation he finds himself standing sooner than was imagined.Age did it for Ming, and 40-year-old Clegg is the frontrunner in the contest to replace him. Like his opponent in the leadership race, Chris Huhne, he attended the private Westminster School.

11:25 AM — Gay rights activists and members of the Scottish Socialist party are to travel on buses in several Scottish cities today in protest at the treatment of a gay couple on a bus earlier this month.Same-sex couples will hold hug-ins on Stagecoach buses in Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh. In Aberdeenshire protestors will join the couple in recreating their journey.Steven Black, 16, and Mark Craig, 19, were threatened with ejection from a bus and then made to sit separately after a fellow passenger complained about their behaviour.

10:35 AM — Simon Barrow of Ekklesia has a silver tongue when it comes to making excuses for the disgraceful behaviour of some of his co-religionists.Now he comes out in defence of the Evangelical Alliance and its leader Joel Edwards, who has been appointed as a commissioner to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.Give him time, says Simon, let's see how he behaves. He might change. Well, I was one of those who objected to Joel Edwards' appointment and I did so after observing years of efforts by him and his organisation to retard gay rights.

14th November 2007

6:10 PM — The three main party candidates for Mayor of London have spoken to PinkNews.co.uk about a new law that would make incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation an offence.Ken Livingstone, who has been Mayor since 2000, said that many lesbian and gay people in London experience high levels of violence, abuse, threats and insults and welcomed the proposed legislation."The sort of thing that should fall under such legislation, for example, would be the hatred incited by the far right when they assert that all homosexuals are paedophiles," he said.

5:30 PM — Two of France's most admired poets are to be honoured with a museum in north London dedicated to poetry.Arthur Rimbaud and his lover Paul Verlaine fled Paris for London in 1872 amid controversy about their love affair.The 28-year-old Verlaine had abandoned his wife and child to elope with the 17-year-old Rimbaud. The couple had a short-lived relationship and stayed in London for less than a year.

4:00 PM — Reactions to the news that the Rev Joel Edwards, general director of the Evangelical Alliance, had been appointed to serve as one of the commissioners on the new Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), were swift and predictable.There was acknowledgement but little immediate comment in the religious press (many there are nervous about the news, for the opposite reason to PinkNews.co.uk readers) and annoyance and incomprehension in LGBT communities and among civil rights and secular activists.

2:55 PM — The chief executive of the UK's leading gay equality organisation has told a diversity conference that gay and lesbian people are "massively underserved" by the BBC.Ben Summerskill said that £200m of the BBC's £3bn licence fee is paid by gay citizens, who were not getting proper representation on screen.Recent research by Stonewall found that gay people and their lives are five times more likely to be portrayed in negative terms on the BBC.

1:25 PM — A candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Democrat party has told PinkNews.co.uk that he is "absolutely in favour" of a proposed new law to make incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation an offence.Nick Clegg, who is the party's home affairs spokesperson, dismissed concerns from some gay commentators that the law is unnecessary, saying there is a "real problem of overt homophobic incitement to violence."The party's 2005 manifesto promised legislation to tackle this issue.

13th November 2007

5:22 PM — A supposed rendezvous between two lesbian soldiers in an Army stable was just a friendly cuddle, a tribunal heard yesterday.A male colleague had said that Sergeant Louise Ashman and Lance Bombardier Kerry Fletcher were engaged in a romantic encounter in the barn after one sent the other a text message saying "I feel randy", the Daily Mail has reported.But yesterday Miss Ashman insisted she was only comforting her colleague.

4:25 PM — Twenty of the most powerful and influential homosexuals in Britain have been interviewed for an educational resource that will be distributed to young gay people throughout the country.In each of the interviews, which are collected in a pocket-sized booklet, it was concluded that, here in the UK, sexual orientation is no longer an obstacle to reaching potential in the workplace, having a successful career or even becoming a world-leading business professional.

11:34 AM — Former senior police officer Brian Paddick will run for Mayor of London in May 2008 as the Liberal Democrat candidate.The 49-year-old won 73% of the first preference votes in a ballot of London party members.He faces incumbent Ken Livingstone and Tory candidate Boris Johnson in next May's election.

11:34 AM — Pop star Boy George has been charged with false imprisonment after allegedly chaining a male escort to a wall in his London flat.Scotland Yard said the 47-year-old singer and DJ has been charged over an incident at his flat in Shoreditch, east London.The former Culture Club frontman was arrested in May after a man accused him of "false imprisonment and common assault."

11:34 AM — LGBT History Month UK have have launched a new interactive website.The site contains a new calendar for History Month 2008 which allows individuals and organisations to advertise the events they are creating for LGBT History Month by both date and region. It also exhibits all events that have been organised nationwide, with all the relevant information about how to get involved.Last year the organisation had over 800 events on the calendar and is expecting even more this year.

11:34 AM — London's premier Catholic state school, the London Oratory, is facing a furore from gay campaigners this week following their decision to drop a leading AIDS charity as the beneficiary for their World AIDS Day charity concert.Gay rights activists are believed to be planning to picket the Oratory School and distribute leaflets to inform students of the school's decision to suddenly cancel its plan to raise money for the Terrence Higgins Trust, one of Europe's most-respected AIDS charities.

10:59 AM — Author JK Rowling surprised Harry Potter fans the world over last month when she revealed that Hogwarts school headmaster Albus Dumbledore was gay.Critics, fans and pundits have shared their reactions to the character's outing, but what about the people who have helped bring Rowling's story to the big screen for the past seven years?"JK Rowling is an incredibly intelligent woman," Daniel Radcliffe, who has played the titular role in all five Harry Potter films to date, told BBC News.

10:50 AM — Police in the West Midlands have failed in their efforts to get a gay pub's licence revoked.Their request followed an earlier attempt to raid The Fountain Inn for pornography and drugs after receiving an anonymous tip-off.Police bungled the raid when they went to an Irish family pub, The Fountain, a mile down the road. The pub's drinkers were highly amused by the blunder.

10:10 AM — A Stonewall officer has won an award for "outstanding commitment to diversity" in her work tackling issues of homophobic hate crime.Jenny Porter, Stonewall Cymru's community liaison officer, received the award at the North Wales Criminal Justice Board Volunteer and Justice Awards Ceremony this week.Ms Porter works with the police and criminal justice agencies in Wales to develop ways of dealing with homophobically motivated hate crimes

12th November 2007

3:40 PM — One in five Britons has sex with someone new when abroad, according to research published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.The conclusions are based on interviews with 12,000 men and women aged between 16 and 44 as part of the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL).14% of men and 7% of women admitted to having sex with a new partner while overseas.

3:35 PM — Casanova, the famous author and bon vivant, claimed to have bedded a woman in every European city.So it is no surprise that in this modern age of sex and sleaze, he is experiencing something of a revival.First, the BBC adaptation of his life starring a geeky David Tennant; now, the play written by controversial poet Carol Ann Duffy

3:19 PM — A teenager was sentenced to life imprisonment today for murdering a gay council officer in a homophobic attack.David Meehan, 19, admitted to murdering James Kerr, 51, in South Inch public park and leaving him for dead while he and his accomplices went to a party.According to Mr Meehan, the three walked past Mr Kerr on their way back but ignored their victim who was still breathing.

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